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Django

Synopsis

The movie that spawned a genre.

Django is a 1966 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero in the eponymous role. The film earned a reputation as being one of the most violent films ever made up to that point and was subsequently refused a certificate in Britain until 1993, when it was eventually issued an 18 certificate. Subsequent to this the film was downgraded to a 15 certificate in 2004. Although the name is referenced in over thirty "sequels" from the time of the film's release until the mid 1980s in an effort to capitalize on the success of the original, none of these films were official, featuring neither Corbucci nor Nero. Nero did reprise his role as Django in 1987's Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno (Django Strikes Again), in the only official sequel to be written by Corbucci.

A mildly sluggishly paced first half does almost nothing to dilute one of the all-time great movie heroes (complete with one of the all-time great movie hero theme songs).

What struck me this time around is how bifurcated Django the movie and Django the character are - in the first half, he's almost Batman-like, with his hat pulled over his eyes and dispassionately blowing people away with his pistol and then with (spoiler alert!) his machine gun. Then, he meets up with the Mexicans, his hat comes off, and all of a sudden he's a human being. It's a weird counterpoint to Eastwood's Man With No Name, and a dynamic I'd somehow not noticed before.

The sequence with Django taking back his gold is one of my favorite set-pieces ever, and a great example of the "cinema of process." And the whole movie takes place in a believably (but still entertainingly) scuzzy and evil world. Beautiful!

I don’t know if I can say anything coherent about Django, I’m too caught up staring into Franco Nero’s eyes (seriously, that man is soooo fine). The camera loves his eyes too, using them judiciously, withholding them until the most effective moments.

Django starts with an incredible image - the lone figure trudging across empty land, dragging a heavy coffin behind him, bringing death with him. That figure is an enigma, but the film gives just the right amount of information about him, at the right times.

The energy in the film is raw and explosive. There is a slow simmer that kept me intrigued. The villain is so bad, but not comically bad; rather, pure evil bad. A ballet…

The Italian Western a.k.a Spaghetti Western subgenre was born in the hands in one of (if not) the most important directors in the history of cinema, Sergio Leone, and since then, it has influenced thousands of well-known filmmakers, such as our beloved Quentin Tarantino. Everything that's cool about the subgenre is present in Sergio Corbucci's most iconic film, Django, which is an action-packed western full of wonderful moments to enjoy.

The most important element in Spaghetti Western films might be the new style of editing, which played a crucial role in Sergio Leone's masterpieces and which is also present in Corbucci's Django. The way the film shifts from character to character and from shot to shot is impressive, relying on…

I sought this film out only because of its influence on the spectacular "Django Unchained". With the exception of Django's coffin and the surprise it holds, this film is a pretty blatant copy/paste of "A Fistful of Dollars" (which was itself was a copy/paste of "Yojimbo") with so so dubbing for the English version. That being said, this movie was surprisingly enjoyable starting and ending with its catchy as hell theme song.

Coolness on a plate. While the first third of this influential masterwork drags as much as the coffin Django carries with him, the rest of the film is absolute, unadulterated western nirvana. You've got France Nero staring at people in a way that only he and Clint Eastwood can do, you've got a seriously bad-ass machine gun, you've got dynamite, you've got ear-slicing, you've got prostitute mud-wrestling; it's all here.

I was surprised at how influential this actually turned out to be, and I'm fully satisfied. You can see where Tarantino got some of his inspiration for Django Unchained, especially in terms of soundtrack and the appearance of General Jackson's men (bag-heads!)

"Franco Nero", of course, is Latin for "great justice and impossible badassery".

I was pleased, watching this again in the middle of a hefty research project about trickster mythology, to find that it is, in fact, a trickster story. Many Westerns are about a stranger without a home coming into a troubled town, but few take the pains to make their wanderer as liminal as Django - a blue-eyed white man with a Spanish name coming into a town where the white population are violently persecuting the Mexicans. The side of justice appears to be obvious at first, but Django remains stubborn in his determination to exist in between. He also has elements of the psychopomp, a mythical archetype who…

I sought this film out only because of its influence on the spectacular "Django Unchained". With the exception of Django's coffin and the surprise it holds, this film is a pretty blatant copy/paste of "A Fistful of Dollars" (which was itself was a copy/paste of "Yojimbo") with so so dubbing for the English version. That being said, this movie was surprisingly enjoyable starting and ending with its catchy as hell theme song.

Why I've waited this long to see the original Django, I'll never know, (and seen many of the other Django titles instead) but it's obvious why this is so highly regarded. And considering I'm getting my Django Strikes Again tattoo tomorrow, it was a necessary watch tonight. Franco Nero is brilliant, even better than any of his gialli and poliziotteschi roles. This is an immediate addition to my favorites.

This was my third viewing of this film and I actually didn't like it as much as last time. It's still really good, but I wouldn't call it great anymore. Franco Nero is badass though, the music is great, it is well shot, and there are many great scenes including the ending. 8/10